Ark. Man Pleads Not Guilty To Double-Murder
CHICAGO (STMW) -- An Arkansas man pleaded not guilty Monday for a 2002 double-murder of two women dancing in a vacant lot on the West Side.
Terrance Freeman, 32, was found in Arkansas and charged in a warrant with two counts of murder for the June 23, 2002, deaths of Dorothy Richardson and Tina Jackson in the 5000 block of West Madison Street, police said.
Freeman pleaded not guilty on Monday in front of Judge William G. Lacy, according to the Cook County State's Attorney's office. He is being held without bond.
Freeman and his cousin Tyris Smith shot Richardson and Jackson after they got into an argument with another young woman who Smith paid for a "sexually provocative dance," Cook County prosecutors said.
Smith grabbed the girl, angry because the woman didn't show enough skin for the money he gave her, prosecutors said.
The woman allegedly cut Smith with a small knife before he fled the scene in a car driven by another individual.
An hour later, Smith came back with Freeman. Both men opened fire with 9mm pistols, prosecutors said.
The woman Smith got into the argument with was gone. But Richardson, 27, who had been with the woman, and Jackson, 20, were "hanging-out, partying, listening to music and dancing" in the vacant lot, authorities said. Another woman was just getting out of a car after leaving a nearby club.
Smith chased Richardson and shot her multiple times, prosecutors said.
Jackson was shot in the head while talking to a friend, prosecutors said.
The woman exiting the car was shot in the side but survived.
The bullets recovered from the victims' bodies came from two different sets of guns, according to ballistics tests.
Witnesses identified Smith and Freeman as the gunmen, according to prosecutors.
Freeman, who was located in Arkansas, also was held for violating his probation for a 2003 possession of a control substance conviction. While in Arkansas, Freeman, who is nicknamed "Country," was convicted for unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon.
Smith, also known as Marcus Freeman, is currently serving a 10-year sentence in federal prison for a 2007 conspiracy to distribute cocaine conviction. He previously served five years in prison for defacing a firearm.
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